The present invention relates generally to an adaptively reconfigurable electronic information display and, more particularly, to a computer based wireless system for presenting information in different languages, forms and formats in response to a customer""s individual profile information.
Most retail stores today, particularly supermarkets, compete fiercely to attract customers to their stores. One mode of attraction is by offering personalized service which is adapted to meet the particular expectations and needs of each member of a highly diversified clientele.
In a present-day supermarket, merchandise items that are offered for sale are typically associated with some type of display, usually by placing the stock items on a shelf or within a refrigeration or freezer unit and positioning some form of system for displaying prices in proximity to the items. Conventionally, paper or plastic pricing indicators, such as price labels, signage, and the like, are commonly mounted in proximity to the merchandise items, or on the items themselves, to notify customers of an item""s price. Pricing indicators often include additional information indicia such as product size, product weight, unit price and other identifying information. While manual marking of merchandise items is the most common method of providing pricing indicators, the trend in the retail industry is moving in the direction of using electronic means, such as electronic display screens, for giving pricing indications and other identifying information at the item""s location.
However, in a conventional electronic merchandise display system, the pricing indicators and other identifying information, such as size, weight, and unit price are displayed as a message in a language which is fixed according to the specification of the apparatus. For example, the display screen will display its component information in the Japanese language on a display apparatus which is installed in a supermarket in Japan. Information is displayed in the English language on display units installed in supermarkets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the like, while information is displayed in the German language on display terminals installed in supermarkets in Germany.
Likewise, the particular system of weights and measures, as well as the currency associated with particular goods, again necessarily depend on the nationality specification of the apparatus. A display system in a Japanese supermarket will give a product""s weights and measures in the metric system and its pricing information in Yen, while a display system in a United States supermarket will display a product""s weights and measures using the English system and its pricing information in dollars and cents.
Although the system is very convenient for a completely homogeneous population, it admits to several disadvantages when viewed against the global perspective of trade, tourism and efficient business practices. In particular, International tourism, as well as International business, results in large numbers of non-national language speaking people having to interact with local retail stores in order to make the purchases necessary for day-to-day living. Where item information and item pricing indicators are provided in a language and in a system of weights and measures that are completely unfamiliar to a customer, the customer may become quite confused and unknowingly purchase an undesired item or a desired item in an undesired quantity. In addition, customers which may qualify for special consideration, such as senior citizens, may not be able to communicate that they are entitled to such consideration and, indeed, may not even understand that this is the case.
Further, International corporations which manufacture such display devices must maintain a complete set of language specifications, systems of weights and measures, and the like, for each country in which sales are desired. Because the display units going to different countries are required to be manufactured under different sets of specifications, such International manufacturers are not able to realize the economies of scale that would obtain if they were able to manufacture and export a single general-purpose apparatus, without regard to national language and other national cultural differences.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a shopping display system that is able to be adaptively reconfigured so as to display item pricing indicators and other identifying information such as item size, item weight, unit price, and the like in a language, form, and format which is directed to the specific needs of a particular customer. Such a system should be programmed to recognize and display information in a great variety of national languages, as well as recognize and display information in a number of different systems of weights and measures and in accordance with a number of different currencies. In any particular national environment, the system defaults to displaying information in accordance with that nation""s characteristics, but upon interacting with a customer with a different national characteristics, the display system adaptively reconfigured in accordance therewith.
These and other objects are accomplished in accordance with the present invention by an electronic personal shopping system that is used in a retail facility to adaptively reconfigure a merchandise item display panel to display item pricing indicators and other identifying information in a language, form, and format which is directed to the specific needs of a particular customer. The electronic personal shopping system is programmable to recognize and display information in a great variety of national languages, as well as to recognize and display information in a number of different systems of weights and measures and in accordance with a number of different currencies.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the electronic personal shopping system includes a number of individually addressable electronic display units which are mounted at corresponding display locations at which particular merchandise items are offered for purchase. Each of the individually addressable electronic display units is configured to present a particular item information message relating to the merchandise items offered for purchase at that display location. A wireless, RF interrogator unit is associated with and in proximity to each of the individually addressable electronic display units. Each interrogator defines an interrogation area characterized by an RF radiation field.
A store platform computer is coupled to the interrogators and display units by a bi-direction communication bus. A store platform computer receives data communications from the interrogator units and transmits merchandise related information messages to the display units. Each display unit and interrogator is identified by a unique bus address.
The electronic personal shopping system also includes a wireless, RF spectrum portable customer data card which further includes a memory element for storing at least a customer identification (ID). When a customer carrying the card enters an interrogator""s radiation field, the interrogator accesses the customer ID from the card""s memory and transmits the ID to the store platform computer, along with its bus address. The store platform computer receives the customer ID and consults a database in order to match the customer ID to a customer specific demographic profile message script. The profile message script contains customer specific profile information such as each customer""s preferred national language, gender, date of birth, preferred weights and measures system, preferred currency and any indication of special status, such as senior citizen, disability, and the like.
The electronic personal shopping system further includes a database having a number of profile specific data sets, with each data set including an item description table containing information messages for merchandise items offered for purchase at perspective display locations. The information messages of each table differ from one another in that their contents are replicated in different national languages, different systems of weights and measures, different currencies, and the like. A profile decoder circuit decodes a profile message script into selection criteria data which is received by a selection and presentation circuit. The selection and presentation circuit selects a particular one of the profile specific data sets on the basis of the selection criteria data and presents that particular profile specific data set for display.
In a further aspect of the present invention, each customer""s demographic profile information is stored in the memory of the portable customer data card and is transmitted to the store computer, along with the customer""s ID, upon being accessed by an interrogator following a customer""s entry into the interrogator""s radiation field.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, selection and criteria data, whether derived from a customer""s profile data contained in a database entry or stored in a memory of a portable customer data card, selects appropriate ones of a number of conversion rules, by which a generalized merchandise item description table is converted for display in an appropriate national language, with an appropriate weights and measures system, a preferred currency, and the like. The store platform computer directs the selected merchandise item information message to the display unit associated with the interrogator unit which received the customer""s ID, thereby adaptively reconfiguring the display to present a merchandise item information message in a modified form specified by a customer""s profile data.
Thus, in accordance with the invention, customers are able to realize substantial labor saving benefits during a shopping trip by being able to view (or hear, in the case of the vision impaired) item information and item pricing indicators in a language, currency and a system of weights and measures that are familiar to the customer. An international customer is, thus, able to interact with a local retail store in order to make certain purchases necessary for day-to-day living. In addition, non-native customers, which may qualify for special consideration, such as senior citizens, are able to determine that they are entitled to such consideration and have the information presented to them in a manner which is understandable and easily perceived, even by those with vision or hearing impairment.